Herod, Roman governor of the Land of Israel for seventy years, was a bloodthirsty dictator. To give legitimacy to his rule, he married a Hasmonean daughter. Though he is recorded to have loved her and had children with her, he loved his power even more. From his shifting loyalties within the power structure of Rome to his barbaric murder of his own children, this lecture paints a harrowing picture of the most treacherous times in Jewish history.

• Julius Caesar, Brutus, Marc Antony and Cleopatra - Learn the facts behind the famous names
• Shammai's fearless stand against Herod
• the tragic last gasp of the Sanhedrin
• political intrigue that proves that truth is stranger than fiction

While Julius Caesar and Pompei struggled with each other for rule of the Roman Empire, a parallel struggle raged on between the last of the Hasmoneans dynasty. These complex events intertwined and set the conditions that brought about the end of Hasmonean rule, the rise of Herod, and Roman domination over the Land of Israel.

• Hyrkanus vs. Aristobulus - Alexander Yanai's sons fight for the throne
• Julius Caesar vs. Pompei - cutthroat political rivalry
• Antipater's manipulations to get Herod into power
• Hillel, the great yet humble rabbi who stood apart from it all

When the fearsome Alexander Yanai came to power, he strengthened the position of the Sadducees, the deniers of the Oral Law. To the traditional Jews or Pharisees, this was grounds for civil war. Rabbi Wein brings to life the Talmudic stories that reveal Alexander Yanai’s paranoia and the defiance that led to one of the bloodiest periods of Jewish history.

• the Sadducees - Jewish deniers of Oral Law
• the Pharisees - ready to defend Judaism at all costs
• Alexander Yanai - from prison to the palace
• Simchas Bais Ha Sho'eva - the rebellion that sparked a war
• Shlomtzion Ha Malka - the righteous queen who (temporarily) restored the peace

The victory of the Maccabees installed the Hasmonean family as the new rulers of the Jewish people, but the heroism of the early generation did not last for long. Beginning with the rule of the righteous Shimon Ha Maccabee and ending with the tragic and corrupt Yochanan Hyrkanus, Rabbi Wein sheds light on the forces that caused the precipitous descent of the Hasmonean dynasty.

• the tragic fate of Judah Maccabee and his brothers
• the dual of Simon Maccabee - king and Kohain Gadol
• the alliance with Rome and what it meant for the Jews
• the split between the Sadducees and Pharisees, rebels vs. traditionalists

With the death of Alexander, the Greek empire divided into two rivaling ones: the Seleucid Empire of the north and the Ptolemaic Empire of the south. Precariously sandwiched in between was the Land of Israel. The deceptively peaceful period that saw the creation of the Septuagint turned out to be the calm before the storm of Greek oppression, the Maccabee rebellion, and the Chanukah victory and miracle.

• the story of Chanukah told with historical detail
• the two sides of the Septuagint
• the origin of the fast of the 10th of Teves
• Judah Maccabee and his brave, self-sacrificing family

Historically, the Jewish people assimilate whenever two conditions exist: 1) their host country grants them peace and freedom 2) the culture of that country appeals to them. Ancient Greece was therefore the paradigm of Jewish assimilation. Because of the relationship between Alexander the Great and Shimon Ha Tzaddik, the Jews were spared from violent conquest, and because of the attractiveness of Greek philosophy, sports, and theater, masses of Jews became Hellenists. With military history and cultural detail, Rabbi Wein shows how the stage was set for the war-torn years of the Chanukah miracle.

• Greek culture: why the "classics" hold such appeal
• Alexander's first encounter with Shimon Ha Tzaddik
• the minyan shtarot, calendar for Jewish legal documents
• a devastating analysis of Jewish assimilation through the ages

Haggaddah Shiur 2025 given by Rabbi Ralbag on April 8, 2025

The Men of the Great Assembly

In the Second Temple period, the Jews were prevented from re-establishing the kingship in Jerusalem. In its place, Ezra and Nechemia created the Great Assembly, a legal body of 120 righteous men. Rabbi Wein details their many great accomplishments, from compiling the Tanach and siddur to fighting a war against the Samaritans. The spiritual and political achievements of the Great Assembly were responsible for preserving Jewish life not only in the glorious past but for the distant future.

• The Men of the Great Assembly; spiritual checks and balances in Jewish government
• The origins of the Jewish calendar and prayer book
• What was and what wasn't included in the canon of the Bible and why
• The history of the Hebrew Apocrypha and the ban against it